The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Three Speed Overdrive Question

Just installed the overdrive in my 62 1/2 ton behind a 235 six. Two questions-when I put grease in the two compartments does it flow back and forth or must I check both ? Does anyone know a place or mechanic in East Texas who rebuilds these trans? I live close to Tyler. Thanks for any help or info. The trans is great! I use a toggle switch to switch in and out of overdrive..

Just finished rebuilding mine, not too hard and I had never opened up any tranny before this. The worst part is locating and paying for replacement parts, but I have found places that have the NOS parts and there ia always ebay. I even found an original '50's vintage rebuild manual on ebay that has more pictures than words so even I could do it. As far as the oil goes,
there are seperate fill and drain plugs on the Three speed part and the OD part of the unit.

I ran across this link while getting my 3 speed overdrive working.

http://www.speedprint.com/Deves50/

Click the How to Resources on the left, then scroll down to Borg Warner overdrive link.

Has the Borg Warner Operation Manual, and the overdrive service pages from the Chevy Truck shop manual, and an article on re working the solenoid. All of these are available in PDF format, so you can view or print them out, like I did,so you can have your own paper manual for reference.

One of the most linked pages for the overdrives is the early burbs pages at www.classictruckshop.com, for some reason these pages have dissapeared. However, the above posted link also has PDF versions of the Early Burbs Overdrive pages, for download.

At one point someone posted that a Portland Transmissions had rebuild kits for these overdrives, but I have not found an address or phone number for them, maybe someone could post it here.

I was lucky in that my Solenoid and Governor worked. I was just missing the kickdown switch, which I replaced with a DPDT switch in the dash, alows me to have the automatic functions of the overdrive, but I can also force the overdrive out when I need the power.

Doing a switchboard.com search, I found the following:

Portland Transmission Parts

1016 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, OR 97214-3611 Phone: (503) 235-3189

I dunno if that's the right place or not but it might be worth a phone call to check.

Many thanks for the info! I downloaded the Service Manual for my transmission which contains most of the info I needed. Incidently the two compartments of the trans shares the same grease so I only have to check the front plug for the correct grease level after the initial application of grease to the overdrive unit. I too have a flip switch on the dash to activate the overdrive unit. Dropped my RPMS from 3500 to 2500 for 65mph with a 390 ratio rearend. I love the unit!

You know you're scaring me by calling that substance which you are putting into the transmission 'GREASE'. You're putting in gear oil, right?

Anyway, what tires are you running with that 3.90 rear? Yeah man, I love my 3sp+od too!! Regards, Cosmo.

You are absolutely correct Cosmo! I put Pennzoil SAE 80W-90Gl5-multipurpose gear lubricant in the transmission. What do you suggest if this is not the correct lubricant? I run 235-70-15 radial car tires on the truck since they have whitewalls. I know about you traveling long distances in your 52 or was it a 51 truck? Keep on trucking!

The "Portland Transmission" I bought my rebuild kit from is actually in Providence,Rhode Island 1-800-556-6496. They were real helpful and have all the parts including gears and even solenoids.